the ability to learn to preform a particular behavior when a particular stimulus is present

Long term potentiation (LTP)

a long-term increase in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by repeated high-frequency activity of that input, postsynaptic activity increased

hippocampal formation

undergoes LTP, includes the dentate gyrus and subiculum

Population EPSP

an evoked potential that represents the excitatory postsynaptic potenials of a population of neurons, from the dentate gyrus and become more tight (responsive) over time

Long-term depression

postsynaptic activity decreased

Operant conditioning

the means by which we profit from experience, start out depending on basal ganglia for response to stimulus, with repition, only basakl ganglia; positive reinforcement activates dopaminergic neurons in VTA and nucleus accumbens(involved in learning)

Motor learning

learning to make a new response, requires sensory guidence from the enviornment

Relational learning

learning the relationship among individual stimuli, important for making and retrieval of long-term memories

Declaritive memories

can be consciously recalled (explicit)

Declaritive memories: semantic

when is your birthday

Declaritive memories: episodic

what did you do for your birthday?

Non-declaritive memories

cannot be consciously recalled (implicit)

Non-declaritive memories: procedural

riding a bike

Non-declaritive memories: primed

being reminded of grandma after a familiar smell

Retrograde Amnesia

preceed some distrubance to the brain, such as head injury; cannot remember events prior to brain damage

Anterograde amnesia

events that occur after some disturbance to the brain, such as head injury or certain degenerative brain diseases; cannot remember events that occured after damage